Relative adverbs, like relative pronouns, introduce relative clauses that modify a noun or a noun phrase. However, while relative pronouns (such as "that," "which," or "who") are used to relate information to a person or a thing, relative adverbs ("where," "when," and "why") are used when the information relates to what?More...

In the thousand years leading up to the Renaissance, developments in the construction and design of defensive fortifications changed warfare. As new tactics, weapons, and siege techniques were created to breach them, fortifications were modified to maintain their effectiveness. Along with walls, moats, and drawbridges, soldiers used measures such as machicolations—openings between a wall and a parapet through which stones and boiling water could be hurled—and killing fields, which were what?More...

Spam is now a ubiquitous part of the Internet, but that was not always the case. Early in the Internet age, two enterprising immigration lawyers—Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel—opened the floodgates of unwanted online commercial solicitation when they posted an ad for their services on thousands of Usenet newsgroups. Though not the first Usenet spam, the "Green Card Lottery" notice was the first to be commercial in nature and ushered in the modern era of Internet spam. What became of the duo?More...

A brilliantly gifted linguist and one of the most dashing figures of his time, Oxford was also reckless, hot-tempered, and disastrously spendthrift. He was the patron of an acting company and wrote highly praised poems and plays in his earlier years, though none of the plays are known to have survived. He is considered by some to be the true author of Shakespeare's plays, since his own literary output apparently ceased just before Shakespeare's began. Which of his writings have survived?More...

Quotation of the Day

Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.

Also known as Halifax Resolves Day, Halifax Resolutions Day, Halifax Independence Day, or Halifax Resolutions of Independence Day, this is the day on which, in the spring of 1776, North Carolina's delegates to the Second Continental Congress were given permission to join with representatives from other colonies in declaring their independence from British rule. The Halifax Resolutions helped lay the groundwork for the American Revolution. Halifax Day observances take place in Halifax with reenactments and living history camps. More...

A traumatic brain injury (TBI), even a mild one such as a concussion, may raise your risk for dementia, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed 36 years of data from 2.8 million people and found that those who sustained TBIs were 24 percent more likely ...More...

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